Body of late ex-Somali leader laid to rest at state funeral

Several roads around the airport were closed from 6 a.m. to make way for the funeral procession and avert a possible terrorist attack from the Al-Shabaab group.

News Keydmedia Online
12 March 2021

MOGADISHU, Somalia - The body of Somalia’s late president Ali Mahdi Mohamed, who died at Nairobi hospital from Covid-19 last Wednesday night arrives in Mogadishu on Friday morning.

Janazah prayers were performed at Aden Abdulle International airport with the attendance of outgoing president Farmajo and opposition candidates before the body was finally laid to rest at state burial.

The mourners said their final goodbyes to the departed fourth president of Somalia who ruled the Horn of Africa country during the civil war between 1991 and 1997.

Somali soldiers carried the national flag-draped casket from an aircraft that transported the corpse from the Kenyan capital and was placed on the runway ground of the seafront airport in the capital.

Several roads around the airport were closed from 6 a.m. to make way for the funeral procession and avert a possible terrorist attack from the Al-Shabaab group.

The funeral closes the final chapter on Ali Mahdi’s lifespan 1939-2021.

KEYDMEDIA English